Anina Walters and the “Land of Sweets” wins the 2024 Story Stars competition!

Statement by Minister David Maynier, Minister of Education Western Cape

This morning, I visited Durbanville Primary School to announce our 2024 Story Stars winners! 

Story Stars is an annual creative writing competition for all Grade 4 learners in the Western Cape.

Congratulations to Anina Walters, otherwise known in her story as “Anina Mouse”, who is our 5th Story Stars annual winner!

The top 3 winners are as follows:

• 1st place: Anina Walters – Durbanville Primary School, Metro North.
• 2nd place: Isabella Hubbard – Kleinmond Primary School, Overberg
• 3rd place: Hafsa Ackers – Rustenberg Girls Primary School, Metro Central

Congratulations to all our winning learners!

As the winner of the 2024 Story Stars writing competition, Anina’s story has been made into an animated film, narrated by and starring Anina as Anina Mouse, alongside our main characters, Felix and Felicity.

Anina was approached at the end of last year about her winning story, so that we could record her voice for the animated film that was revealed today. The Story Stars film can be viewed or downloaded here: https://www.westerncape.gov.za/education/story-stars

She follows in the footsteps of our previous Story Stars winners, Keschrie Booysen from Philadelphia Primary School (2020), Xia Du Toit from Laerskool Mikro (2021), Umar Jones from Blossom Street Primary School (2022), and  Zia van den Berg from Kenridge Primary School (2023), in the Story Stars Hall of Fame!

Anina’s story, “The Land of Sweets”, took Felix and Felicity to a magical land of toffee trees, marshmallow mice, a cheese curls forest and a pretzel prison!

The story is quite the adventure, written both imaginatively and creatively, using the correct punctuation, spelling and vocabulary throughout.  Congratulations Anina!

It was wonderful to see the winning story come to life at the premiere of her animated film. The animators clearly had fun with their artistic interpretation of Anina’s characters and scenery, creating wonderful movement, sounds and characters in this entertaining short film.

While I too would also like to escape to a Candy Floss cloud on many a day, it was a pleasure being at Durbanville Primary School this morning handing over the prizes to our three winners.

And as always, there is a dedicated teacher behind every entry in school-based competition, inspiring their learners to participate. Congratulations to Durbanville Primary School Grade 4 teacher, Ms. Anita Knipe, and principal, Mr. Pierre Du Toit, for encouraging their learners to take part in Story Stars.

Thank you to all the other teachers and schools who participated.

2025 competition

This morning, we also launched the 2025 Story Stars competition. The 2025 Grade 4 learners of the Western Cape can now write the next instalment of Felix and Felicity’s adventures.  The idea behind the competition is to get learners excited about creative writing and the opportunities it can bring.

In a survey of a class of Grade 4 learners in 2019, it was evident that their interests lay in watching cartoons and becoming YouTube stars. Not much has changed in 2025!

We decided to create a competition which encouraged reading and creative writing, that could ultimately result in an animated film written, narrated, and starred in by the winner themselves. It is then published on You Tube and other social media platforms.

The Story Stars winning entries from previous years can be read and viewed online to enjoy.

We would like to encourage all Grade 4 learners to enter the competition and for their teachers to submit the best stories in their class. We are looking for creative and adventurous stories from Grade 4 learners, taking us to wild and imaginative places!

In 2025 we will choose a winner in every language, Afrikaans, English and Xhosa, with the ultimate winner being chosen from these top stories. Each winner’s school and teacher will also receive prizes.

The deadline for entries is 12 May 2025.

Prizes

In addition to writing, starring in, and narrating the video, which will be watched by thousands of learners across the Western Cape, the Story Stars winner will receive a tablet, book bag, and branded stationery. The winning school also receives a R10 000 transfer payment for learning and teaching support material. 

The 2nd and 3rd prize winners each receive a tablet, book bag and stationery. 

The winning teacher also receives a bookbag and a voucher.
 

We can’t wait to see who our next Story Star will be, and encourage all of our Grade 4 learners to enter!